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Part one of two-part conversation with Branco Malić, on being a half-baked academic, egos in alt media, George Bataille and taboo, Heidegger and post-modernist nihilism, cutting through left and right, Alexander Dugin, Jeffrey Kripal, mapping an ideologue, trauma and neo-Satanism, the ideology of tyranny, subversion of the mainstream, movement from fringe to center, identity politics, language infiltration, Order of the 9 Angles, false dichotomies, National Socialism and the fringe, identifying with one’s internet avatar, Dugin and the Russian deep state, sea and land at war, William Sims Bainbridge & audience cults, the question of the elite, the zeitgeist, an apocalyptic mindset, Trump-as-messiah, Kek and post-human cyber-sorcery, synchronicity as the way down, a real delusion, synchromysticism as the flip side of nihilism, marijuana and a self-generated matrix, the devil as the ultimate conspiracy theory, the birth of conspiracy theory, the French revolution, the secularization process, the Illuminati, the dark side of the enlightenment, fear & control, the significance of evil, influencing the imagination.
Songs: “The Kommema and his Religion” by SunWalker; “Raca (The Duck)” & “Navigare Necessest” by Cinkusi.
Great work. Looking forward to part 2.
Very interesting stuff. Was thinking you might want to talk to Florian Cramer–a research professor in new media, so I guess he’s a full baked academic. Your sensibilities could make for an interesting discussion with him. In the last year he’s been tracing the kinda alt-right meme magick troll culture, to roots in ironic, post-modern anarcho-nihilism.
Cramer makes a good point about four chan culture where this kind of ironic, snarky, skeptical, punk energy at some point suddenly turns to the opposite where suddenly these people go to the realm of absolute values and clear distinctions between people–specifically between white people and everybody else, and the heroic values of the strong man. So on one hand it’s a nihilist punk attitude of tearing everything down but then there’s also a reactionary traditionalism of holding up the highest supreme values. It’s like we’ve reached this oversaturation point in a culture of extreme nihilism, where it finally becomes self-destructive and when you reach that point then you somehow need to stand your ground, which means having to define your ground. And then there’s this retreat to fictional basic values or a nostalgia for a past that never existed.
Also, re the growing occultist movements, Steve Bannon at one point cited the fascist occultist Julius Evola. So there’s that . . . Strange science fictional unreality show we’ve entered in the last year.
I quite agree with your thought (from many podcasts ago) that 2016 was the year conspiracy went mainstream. I realized it at one point in the campaign when Trump played to the anti-vaxxer crowd during a rally rant–Which I dont think I’d ever even heard a politician speak to . . . Sort of blew Hilary Clinton’s cute little talk show comment using “UAP” instead of “UFO” out of the water . . .
The question of chaos and conspiracy is an interesting one. And the casting of this force perceived by our pattern recognition machines as good (enlightenment age) or as the devil (dark ages?)… Great stuff. Thanks. Looking forward to part two.
thanks, good points, I will look into Cramer.
Mightn’t the reaction of the kek-meme people towards traditionalism be a reaction to, as they would call it, a degenerate culture? I don’t think you would see such a backlash against, as they would call it, cultural marxism, if there wasn’t such infiltration of the media, education system and government by people promoting values that are utterly toxic. I find it funny that you say they’re retreating to fictional values and a past that never existed. We live in a society that has no value for integrity or honor, that promotes casual sex and pornography, and intentionally destroys children’s minds through the education system. Why would anyone not want to tear everything down? Why would anyone not want to return to having “fictional values” like honor? I suppose you might say the fictional values you see them promoting are more nationalism and racism, but I think those kinds of comments (which are certainly not a small part of these memers memes) are again a reaction to the horrors of elite-controlled globalism and to illogical claims of perfect equality which can’t be objected to in “normal” society respectively.
I don’t think it’s so much that they want to go back to a past that never existed (though I think many of us do want that in the form of looking at our childhood through rose-tinted glasses), but that they don’t want to keep going with this messed up, illogical society. However, since they have no real life connections and no supportive community, they gather anonymously online and just attack attack attack. I think this plays right into social engineers plans, as they don’t care how angry you get as long as you sit there on facebook and consume trash food, pick up your ADHD medicine, and keep playing the hate game while doing nothing in real life.
But I must say, I’ve seen a few alt-right memers that I do have respect for, as they advocate shunning mainstream political parties, pop culture, media, food and all that BS. If they’re for ending our complicity (as Jasun nicely put in on these podcasts with Branko) in the “conspiracy,” then they’re good in my book. And even if they’re “racist,” they’re better than anyone who’s supporting the continued destruction of culture by consuming mainstream culture and supporting it with their time and money.
Sanity — glad someone’s got it. Really great discussion.